Pros and Cons for Titebond III and Elmer's Yellow Carpenter's Glue

Titebond is by far the finest "professional" wood glue on the market. Our whole layout was built using Titebond, and once set for a few days, we even removed all the screws, and then continued on. Even the Vinyl Bed road bed is glued down with Titebond, as well as all the track which was glued to the vinyl roadbed, and again, all the screws were removed after the Titebond set.

The Titebond product is so strong, that I inadvertently laid two legs (made from 1" X 4" glued together in an "L" for layout legs) too close to one another, and the small bit of glue that oozed out of a joint, stuck to the leg next to it. Wound-up breaking the wood in order to separate them!

Titebond hands down is my go to wood glue.  I have worked with it many times and it is very strong.

Ed Kelly posted:

I am starting a project and have to decide between the two.  I would appreciate your comments and actual experience.

Could you relate some information regarding the actual project - just what are you gluing together and what types of joinery are involved?

I've used the regular Carpenter's glue for decades when rebuilding and restoring furniture, and not had any failures; joints are usually stronger than the actual wood (some exceptions dependent on types of wood...).

Ed,

Regular yellow Elmer's Carpenter's glue was my favorite for years with no problems. I tried Titebond III recently when the store was out of my regular yellow.

The Titebond III dries to a darker brown which is good when staining projects with an ink/alcohol mix. It also seems to set up with more tack in less time.  

I'll probably stick with it next time around.

Jim

Titebond - for no other reason than those Elmers Nozzles stink! - they clog within minutes...

I had been using one of the old Elmers twist nozzles - they are much better - like a horses butt - never gets dirty!

But - my last buy was Titebond.

I do a lot of woodworking and have used different glues.  Titebond and Elmer's are both designed to hold joints that are already tight-fitting and are clamped or otherwise held together while gluing.  If your application doesn't fit that description, either one will fail, as they aren't intended to fill gaps.  Once dry, there is minimal to no difference in the strength or durability of the joint with either glue.  The only difference is that Titebond is more resistant to moisture.  However, if your model railroad is subject to that much moisture, you have many other problems to deal with.

Titebond, after I gave up on my bottle of Elmer's.  It got to where had to pry open the cap with tools.  Otherwise, I found the two brands comparable.

I use Tightbond for any wood structures or components; if metal or other materials are involved, l use two-part epoxy.  I consider these my strongest and most effective glues, using model glues (Ambroid, Tester's) in special siuations where maximum strength is thought unnecessary.

Still don't know just what the OP really wanted to do and use either glue for.......

Tom Tee:  Great info, thanks.  I didn't know there were that many clamps in the whole world.

Martin:  And you won't know until the project is declassified.  Hush, hush, you know.

One of the reasons I asked is that I read about glue "creep"  and wondered if it is a problem.  I don't want any problems with something as basic and as complicated as glue. 

I still would like to know about Titebond III and creep.

Thanks to all.  I appreciate the information.  Titebond III is the winner.

Ed

Ed Kelly posted:

Tom Tee:  Great info, thanks.  I didn't know there were that many clamps in the whole world.

Tom is responsible to the world-wide clamp shortage....

Martin:  And you won't know until the project is declassified.  Hush, hush, you know.

Different applications, types of wood, and joinery may require different glues.....

One of the reasons I asked is that I read about glue "creep"  and wondered if it is a problem.  I don't want any problems with something as basic and as complicated as glue.  

Glue creep?  I thought that was the shabby guy living in the adhesives aisle at the HD....

hands down Titebond is my preferred choice, been using it for 40 years.

you could get exotic and use a urethane glue like Gorilla if your mystery project requires super-human holding power. but like others have said Titebond will tear wood fibers before the glue joint fails*

(*when used properly)

Timely for me. I just used Titebond last weekend for assembling the pieces of a basic control panel I made for my PW layout.  Worked great.

I use Titebond and more recently had good success with gorilla glue.

Was it Norm Abrams that said "You can never have too many clamps"?

What's the project that requires all this endless discussion about glue?

I use Selley's wood glue have done for years great stuff as good as Titebond.  Yeh, I tried it once you can actually buy it here!

What's the project? Roo.